Category: Other Developments
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Ford, Domino’s Partner to Deliver Pizza by Autonomous Vehicles
Ford Motor Company and Domino’s Pizza Inc. have reportedly announced tests for a self-driving car that delivers pizza. The car will carry orders in external compartments that can be accessed by entering the last four digits of the customer’s phone number. A safety driver, a Ford engineer and a Domino’s employee will accompany the car…
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Glitch Reveals Pizza Co.’s Facial-Recognition Ad Tactics
An apparent glitch in a Peppes Pizza advertisement in Oslo, Norway, reportedly revealed to passersby that the ad determined whether to show pizza or salad to its audience based on gender as perceived by facial-recognition software. The digital billboard used a hidden camera to scan faces of the audience and showed images of sausage pizza…
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Slim-Fast Discontinues Snack Advertorial Content After Ad Board Ruling
Slim-Fast Foods Co. has ended its “100 Calories Snacks” advertisements appearing in Star magazine after the advertising industry’s self-regulation investigative unit, the National Advertising Division, determined that the format of the ads could mislead consumers into believing they were part of the publication’s editorial content. The cover of Star featured “what appeared to be an…
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Rudd Center Examines Food and Beverage TV Advertising to Children
The University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released a study on TV food advertising viewed by preschoolers, children and adolescents, claiming that “food advertising exposure increased with age for both black and white youth, but black youth viewed approximately 50% or more ads than did white youth of the same…
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WHO Report Recommends “Urgent Action” to Curtail Digital Food Marketing to Children
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a November 4, 2016, report titled “Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world: trans-disciplinary perspectives,” which urges policymakers “to reduce children’s exposure to all forms of marketing for foods high in fats, salt and sugars [HFSS], including via digital media.” In particular, the report claims digital marketing…
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France Bans Plastic Cups, Cutlery
France has reportedly passed a ban on plastic cups, knives, forks and plates as part of an ecological initiative, Energy Transition for Green Growth. The prohibition, which takes effect in 2020, targets the nearly 5 billion plastic cups discarded annually in France. The country is reportedly the first to target plastic dishware. A Brussels-based organization…
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Alcohol Information Partnership Weighs Balanced Approach to New UK Guidelines
Several companies have formed a new group to promote a balanced discussion of alcoholic beverage consumption and address implementation of U.K. labeling recommendations. The Alcohol Information Partnership (AIP) reportedly plans to draw attention to research showing that most adults consume alcohol responsibly and that binge drinking is in decline. In addition, the companies behind the…
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Sugar Industry Allegedly Funded Research Linking Dietary Fats to Heart Disease
Researchers with the University of California, San Francisco, including its Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, published a September 12, 2016, JAMA article claiming that studies funded by the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) “singled out fat and cholesterol as the dietary causes of CHD [coronary heart disease] and downplayed evidence that sucrose consumption was also…